Accused Assessor John Noguez could get get out of jail

LOS ANGELES - John Noguez, the alleged mastermind behind a scheme that cost Los Angeles County more than $1 million in property tax revenue, could be released from jail next week due to a change in California's bail schedule.

The new rules, published Tuesday, now prohibit courts from setting bail in financial fraud cases based on loss, prosecutor Susan Schwartz said.

"It's going to affect every fraud case in Los Angeles County," she said.

As a result of the change, which could lower Noguez's bail from $1.16 million to $600,000, attorney Michael Proctor said he expects Noguez, the Los Angeles County assessor, to be freed after a bail hearing on Feb. 1.

Those contributions went to a campaign war chest that Noguez used to win election in 2010.

Supporters of Noguez held a December fundraiser to assist with his bail. But before Noguez can pay the court, he must prove the funds were not derived from illegal sources.

"It's not going to be an issue," Proctor said. "The funds and property are going to come from a wide variety of friends, family and loved ones."

Noguez, Salari and McNeil were arrested in October and charged with 32 felony counts, including eight counts of bribing an executive officer filed against Salari; four counts of soliciting bribes filed against Noguez; five counts of perjury filed against Noguez; two counts of conspiracy to misappropriate funds filed against Salari, Noguez and McNeil, and 13 counts of embezzlement filed against the trio.

In May, Scott Schenter, a county appraiser, was accused of accepting $100,000 in bribes from Salari to slash the assessed value on multimillion-dollar houses, condos and businesses in Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades while securing campaign contributions from those property owners.

Noguez appeared in court Tuesday clad in an orange jail jumpsuit. The county assessor, and fast-rising political star who once maintained political and personal ties to Rosario Marin, the U.S. treasurer in President George W. Bush's administration, remains in custody in lieu of $1.16 million bail. Salari and McNeil made bail late last year.

Noguez's real name is Juan Renaldo Rodriguez, a fact discovered late in his 2010 race for the county Assessor's Office. Noguez didn't break the law by running under an alias, prosecutors said shortly after his October arrest.

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Salari's attorney, Mark Werksman said there was "no proof of corruption" and said the lowering of property tax assessments were in line with the market forces that had ravaged the real estate market and led to steady decline in real estate values.

"The amounts the taxes were lowered to were justified, and we will prove that in the preliminary hearing," Werksman said.

And far from collusion, Werksman contends that Salari and Noguez's interests are not aligned.

"The tax assessor's incentive is to raise taxes as high as possible (until) the homeowner screams in pain," Werksman said. "The tax agents are trying to save their clients as much as possible on their taxes. The assessor and the tax agents have an adversarial relationship."

Schwarz and Proctor declined to comment on the criminal allegations in the case.

However, Salari did contribute to Noguez's campaign, a point Werksman concedes.

"People who have an interest in seeing that the Assessor's Office is run fairly will contribute to his race," Werksman said. "The county assessor has to run for election, and he gets to collect money in doing so. If we don't want our county assessor to collect contributions we should have him appointed."

Voters were asked in a November advisory ballot measure whether they preferred to have the county assessor appointed rather than elected. By more than a 3-1 margin, voters rejected having the assessor appointed rather than elected.